GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Maverick cross country teams will open the season with their only home meet of the season on Friday evening, when they host nationally-ranked opposition at the Lincoln Park Golf Course.
The men's 6-kilometer race will begin at 6 p.m. while the women's 4K race will follow at 6:45 p.m. Both races will be held on a fan friendly 2K loop. Click above for meet information and a course map.
Live Results can be found at the link above.
A full meet recap will be posted on
www.cmumavericks.com following the meet on Friday night.
Who's Running
The Mavericks have entered 13 men and 13 women (listed below) in Friday's meet.
They will be going against squads from in-state rival and traditional distance running powers Colorado and Western Colorado.
There are also some unattached runners, including some on the CMU roster, who are expected to race with the Mavs, Mountaineers and Buffaloes.
A Look at the Polls & Rankings
The Maverick women
were tabbed 20th in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's NCAA Division II Preseason Coaches' Poll, released on Wednesday. The ranking is the Mavs' highest in a decade since the 2015 preseason poll, when they started off in the No. 11 spot on the heels of a 22
nd place finish at the 2014 NCAA Division II Championships.
The Mavericks finished 23
rd at last year's national meet in what was the program's first national qualification since 2014.
Western Colorado is ranked 10
th in the preseason national poll and was picked fifth in the USTFCCCA's Preseason South Central Regional rankings. CMU was ranked eighth.
The Colorado Buffs are ranked 24
th in the
USTFCCCA's NCAA Division I poll and are fifth in the Mountain Region Preseason Rankings.
The Western Colorado men are ranked fifth in the Division II national poll while Colorado is tabbed 13
th in the Division I poll coming off a 19
th place finish at last year's NCAA Championships.
The Maverick men are not nationally ranked, but are slotted tenth in the Division II South Central Regional rankings. Western Colorado is fourth in those rankings while the Buffs are third in the Division I Mountain Region rankings.
More Preseason Predictions
The Maverick women were picked seventh in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's Preseason Coaches Poll.
Fifth-year senior
Megan Hodges was also named to the Preseason All-RMAC Team, made up of the top 14 returning RMAC runners from last year's NCAA Championships.
Western Colorado's women were picked fourth (tie) and received one first place vote. The Mountaineers Lauren Wilson was on the Preseason All-RMAC team and is amongst the Mountaineers' entries for Friday's meet.
The Maverick men were tabbed eighth in the RMAC Poll while Western was picked third and had two men named to the Preseason All-RMAC team, Those men include Oliver Diaz, the 2024 RMAC Freshman of the Year and Tyler Nord, both of whom have been entered in Friday's race.
A look at the Maverick lineup
Travis Floeck, beginnings his second year as the CMU's Director of Cross Country/Track & Field, has entered 13 men and 13 women in Friday's race.
Men (13): Jackson Baker,
Chase Brown,
Dylan Campbell,
Quintin Collins,
Dillon Elliott,
Owen Frank,
John McGill,
Ryan O'Loughlin,
Jack Singleton,
Alex Spink,
Jayden Thulson,
Kyle Towne,
Winter Whittle.
Women (13): Caitlyn Boyle,
Quin Gregg,
Megan Hodges,
Wehazit Kelati,
Keira King,
Gianna Kirking,
Kate Linstedt,
Autumn McCorkel,
Autumn McQuitty,
Ruthie Richardson,
Jordan Staniszewski,
Abby Varner,
Shirley Weaver.
A look back to 2024
The Mavericks enjoyed a strong season in 2024, especially on the women's side, qualifying for the NCAA Championships as a team for the first time in a decade. They finished 23
rd at the national meet after taking ninth at the brutally competitive South Central Regional to help earn an at-large bid to the national meet. That was their best regional finish since taking eighth in 2016.
They finished seventh at the nearly as tough RMAC Championships, matching their 2023 finish, which is CMU's best since placing fourth in 2014.
The Maverick men placed eighth at the RMAC Championships and 12
th at the regional, significant improvements over their 12
th and 18
th place finishes in the year prior.
Returning Faces
Although not all of the Maverick runners will compete this week, it's worth taking a look at the full Maverick rosters, recruited and retained by
Travis Floeck and his staff.
The Maverick women have a large contingent of 21. They return five of their seven runners from the squad that represented the Mavs at the NCAA Championships, including
Megan Hodges, the team's No. 2 runner on that day.
Quin Gregg,
Kate Linstedt,
Autumn McQuitty and
Brooke Miller and
Kate Linstedt also return from the national team.
Notably, 2022 cross country and 3-time overall all-American
Kira MacGill also returns to the roster after redshirting in 2023 and missing 2024 due to injury, but is not slated to run this week. Miller will also not race on Friday although Gregg, Hodges, Linstedt and McQuitty are expected to toe the line and lead the Mavs.
The Maverick men now have a roster of 20, including four who represented the Mavs at the RMAC and/or regional championships. That list includes
Jackson Baker,
Chase Brown,
Owen Frank and
Ryan O'Loughlin, all of whom are expected to run on Friday.
Newcomers
Floeck also added six new recruits on the women's side, including a pair of transfers in
Keira King, who redshirted at Adams State last year, and
Maya Kobylanski, from Division I Idaho. Kobylanski, who hails from Surrey, British Columbia as the lone Canadian and international runner on the Maverick roster, reunites with Floeck after running under his tutelage at Idaho. She finished third at the 2022 Big Sky Conference Cross Country Championships and was a NCAA Division I Regional Qualifier in the 3K Steeplechase.
The list of four freshman includes
Elizabeth Boice,
Maggie Bush,
Daisy Lalonde and
Sofia Voss.
On the men's side, Floeck added five freshman in
Kael Jex,
Dominick Muller,
James Talbot,
Colton White and
Clayton Wilson.
Some of the freshman are expected to run unattached in Friday's meet.
King will run for the team although Kobylanski will sit the season-opener out.
Full biographies on the Maverick newcomers can be seen on the Recruiting Class introduction story, posted over the summer.
Additionally, the Mavericks have two other women on the 2025 roster in
Caitlyn Boyle, and
Autumn McCorkel , who redshirted a year ago, and two others in
Gianna Kirking and
Abby Varner, who were on the CMU Track & Field squad last winter and spring.
Dillon Elliott returns as a redshirt freshman on the Maverick men's roster, which also includes six middle distance runners who are likely to only race at this meet during the cross country season as part of their overall training program.
The Schedule Ahead
Friday's meet is the first of three regular season meets on the Mavs' schedule to ramp up form the championship half of the season in late October and November. Four of the six meets are in Colorado. Other than this week's home meet in the Friday twilight hours, the other five will be contested on Saturday mornings, mostly on an every other week cadence.
The Mavs will run again on Sept. 20 at the Roadrunners Invitational, hosted by MSU Denver and then will head to the Lewis Crossover Invite in Romeoville, Illinois on Oct. 11 after a 3-week break.
The RMAC Championships will then be contested on Oct. 25 in Colorado Springs and are being hosted by UCCS at Monument Valley Park. The South Central Regional Championships will be contested two weeks later on Nov. 8 at the Pueblo Country Club in Pueblo, which will qualify teams and individual runners for the Nov. 22 NCAA Division II Championships to be held in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
